BURUNDIAN WOMEN SUPPORT GROUP






Jozerene is an 18 year-old single mother with a 4year old son. She has been part of small group of Burundian refugee women who have been meeting often for small informal times of sharing and fellowship. She appreciates this time and opportunity for support as she works at settling in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. She and many other other Burundian refugees arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the summer of 2007 and have lived here in the past eight months. Before then they lived in large refugee camps in the country of Tanzania where many of them were born and raised. Jozerene has known no other life than that of being a refugee. So when the prospect of her coming to the United States to start a new life came up, she was very delighted.

Jozerene had lived a tough life at the camp, both her parents had died when she was young and she and her siblings had to fend for themselves while living at the refugee camp. She remembers many times when she and her siblings had to sleep hungry because their food rations from the camp administrators had ran out.

Today, she lives in her own one bedroom apartment in Grand Rapids, and with the help of her local sponsoring refugee agency, she manages her own affairs while raising her son. However, challenges remain for her and other refugee women. She cannot yet speak English (as she only spoke Kirundi and Swahili while at the camp) and she does not have reliable transportation which forces her to rely on Public transportation in order for her to go for shopping or meet her appointments. Recently she stated to her support group leader “ I want to learn English and also get a job with a local company. Can you be able to help me with that?”

Many of the refugee women meeting in the support group talk of their desire to be able to speak English and to get jobs that would help supplement their household incomes. Some of them have been attending English as Second Language (ESL) classes that are conducted by various agencies within the city, but with the onset of the cold season combined with unreliable transportation, and lack of child care options, many have had to temporarily suspend their attendance in these classes.

The African Community Center of West Michingan, that is organizing this women’s support group continues to work with these women to find solutions to the challenges they face. The support group leader from the African Center visits with these women, listens to their concerns and answers their many questions about life in West Michigan. These women greatly appreciate this kind of support. Settling in a foreign country with the additional obstacle of not being able to speak or understand the local language can be a major hurdle to overcome. But having someone to listen to those concerns and offer suggestions and a helping hand is a major relief for any refugee person.

The African Community Center strives to provide culturally sensitive and appropriate services to its clients. Over the last five years it has served hundreds of refugees by providing them with services that include ESL classes, Computer literacy classes, Financial literacy workshops, referrals for community services like clothing and food aid, medical help, and job opportunities.

The goal of the African Community Center’s women support group is to help the women to become self- confident and self-reliant. By learning English and gaining job skills including learning how to work with modern technology like computers, many of these women will seamlessly be intergrated into the larger local community and be able to be key players in the life of the community. They will no longer be isolated in their homes but will rather be able to give and share their rich cultural and life experiences with others in the greater Grand Rapids community.

When Jozerene, heard that the African Community Center offers computer classes, she was very excited and asked “ when can I be able to join the classes so that I can know how to operate a computer?” One can see the hunger for knowledge and opportunity from not only this young refugee woman, but from many other newly arrived refugees from not only Burundi, but from many other parts of the world.
It is the hope of the African Community Center of West Michigan that many caring agencies will step up and partner with it to meet the challenging needs of refugee women by providing in-kind support or financial support in order to provide timely and much needed services.